florida state university college of music performance practice

like an a la carte cafeteria where the performer picks and chooses the items deemed
worthy while other considerations are virtually ignored.
The 1990s saw a plethora of books published that dealt with Early Music,
performance practice and authenticity. In 1995, Richard Taruskin published Text and Act,
which served to include his foremost criticisms. Peter Kivy also published in 1995
Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance that suggest that
instead of one restricted and narrow view of authenticity that there are four: composer,
sonic, personal and sensible. Roland Jackson offers a reduced view of Kivy‟s list into two
categories: one, performance practice (composer and sonic) and two, mainstream
(personal and sensible). The inclination to move away from one absolute authenticity, but
to recognize many possible pursuits for achieving historical correctness, demonstrates
how the musical establishment was wrestling to reconcile and justify the censure brought
to light by Taruskin and many others. As a result, a more liberal phrase, historically
informed performance, was adopted to reflect intent of historical correctness, but not an
egotistical value laden approach that alludes to only one true authentic interpretation.
Early music in the new millennium still enjoys an overwhelming popularity.
While it is difficult to hypothesize the course that Early Music will go within the century
there have already been several interesting developments that have occurred. The
criticisms of Taruskin and others, now at least a decade old, are now being challenged by
a new generation of writers. Performer and musicologist, John Butt, highlights what he
believes to be logical inconsistencies within Taruskin‟s writings. Israeli musicologist, Uri
Golomb, a former student of John Butt, feels that Taruskin wrongly portrays Early Music
as monolithic, restrictive and depersonalized. Golomb feels that the evidence suggests the
contrary, that Early Music is rich in diversity and expressiveness. A point that is also
echoed by several other writers who suggest that performances/recordings are
representing a trend to be more expressive.
Chapter 3 chronicles the currents within Bach scholarship and interpretation. The
chapter begins with the legendary revival of the St. Matthew Passion by Felix
Mendelssohn. While Mendelssohn was extremely important to the revival of Bach, he
was by no means the only personality of consequence to resurrect Bach‟s works. For
example, the seed for Mendelssohn‟s appreciation for Bach was partly planted by
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